we had such great, high, expansive hopes only to have them come to this.....
OH THE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Lay Of The Land

After much delay it's time to light the fuse on the 4th edition of the Madison-Basco-Madison Spring Classic (now and forever after to be known as the H8TR100. Begun back in the spring of 2007, the M-B-M Spring Classic is an homage to the European spring road classics. In other words, grueling course conditions tempered by brutal early spring weather for maximum suffering. Sound good? You damn well bet it does! Remember, We pick the day but not the weather!

The Date: Saturday April 10thThe Time: 10:00amThe Distance: approximately 100K (62 miles for the metrically impaired)The Place: as is tradition, a secret until about a week before, but let's just say Madison Wisco fer now.The Cost: $6Registration: keep reading.

As with the last three years, the M-B-M H8TR100 will start in Madison and then do an out and back course on the H8TR Trail (better known as the Badger State Trail) with an overall distance being somewhere around 100K . The H8TR Trail is a combination of pavement, crushed gravel and eight miles of unfinished railroad bed featuring cinders, weeds, deer carcasses, potholes, downed trees and assorted sizes of gravel. Add to that the weather which two years ago featured a mix of rain, snow, sleet and stinging ice pellets aided and abetted by a stiff north wind on the return trip and you have a recipe for F-U-N!!!! Sound like your kind of fun? Oh yes it does! Rain date?....ahahahahahahahahahahaahhaha! This is Wisconsin!!!! Remember once again: We pick the date, not the weather! So be prepared for anything!

There are also highways to cross, bridges and a tunnel. Yes a tunnel, a very long very dark train tunnel so you will need a headlight (no really you will need a headlight) and possibly crampons for the ice in the tunnel. Still with me? Good! We have a couple more things in store just to keep things interesting and to put even more of a challenge in the race. What are they? That would be telling. Suffice to say that even though this is on a level road grade (mostly....) and runs along a finished bike path for the majority of the race (mostly.....) there is an element of danger involved which could lead to injury, damage to bike or even.......getting killed. Mostly it just means using yer head and keeping alert. Last year everybody who started the ride finished the ride and we had a great time doing it.

Competitive? Oh hell yes again! There will be trophies three deep for both men and women plus a DFL trophy for the last person to finish. Hopefully with the aid of sponsors we'll have some damn cool shwag to give away in a drawing at the end. Open catagory for bikes so run whatever though we'd recommend something along the lines of a cross bike, but hell mtn bike, unicycle, single speeds, fixed gear (it happened!), tandem (Bates has threatened a tandem)- you want to try it be our guests....

So, Kitten Master, how the hell do I get registered for this event? Keep watching the Kitten Factory, at some point this week (yes that's a secret too) we'll yell pull and then it's game on! We'll give you an email address to register at. Don't register here in the comments, we might miss it. There will be an 75 rider cap (this includes the six top three mens and womens finishers from last year). 75 is a "just about" manageable number. So 75 it is. We'll keep registration open for a week and then draw names for the roster. Any entries left over after that will go on a waiting list and those entries will be notified if there is an opening.

Fees can be payed via PaypalAs always The Madison-Basco-Madison Spring Classic is a nonsanctioned, totally amateur (us, not you necessarily) event that could seriously threaten life and limb so we take no responsibility for injury or mayhem. Mayhem is cool! Serious injuries not so much.

Oh shut up already Kitten Master!!!here are links for the past three M-B-M race day reports to give you a feel for what it's all about.200720082009